


Creatures and Monster's Among Us

by FallenWolf22



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2018-12-11 15:03:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11716830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenWolf22/pseuds/FallenWolf22
Summary: This is just serious of short little things about Creatures and Monsters you may have heard of or not!





	1. Information

Okay folks, here is just short little things about different creatures, monster, and or legends haven't quite figured if I might do that yet, but lets see how the first three creatures work I think most of you may have heard of them! I actually put a list down below this as to keep track of the Creatures and Monster's I have written!

 

Chapter Creature Lists:

 

Chapter 2 - The Dover Demon  
Chapter 3 - The Jersey Devil  
Chapter 4 - The Rake  
Chapter 5 - The Flatwoods Monster  
Chapter 6 - Mothman  
Chapter 7 - The Lizardman

 

If you would like to request a creature or monster send the request here ------> daniellahays31@gmail  
I'll try and get your request out as quickly as possible!


	2. The Dover Demon

The Dover Demon is a small humanoid reported from Dover, Massachusetts. It was the subject of an intensive scare during the 1970s, when multiple witnesses came forward with their sightings. The Dover Demon is described as looking sort of like the "gray" variety of alien, except that it has skin of a rosy orange instead of sickly gray. The Dover Demon has a large head on a small, stick-like body. It can be bipedal, but it often travels on all fours or switches back and forth between the two modes of locomotion. It has eyes that glow, sometimes orange, sometimes green. It does not seem to wear any clothing, unless the clothing fits tightly and is the same color as its body. Unlike the grays, the Dover Demon does not seem to be associated Artist's concept of the creature, with UFOs. It just wanders around on its own. Cryptozoologists seldom show interest in the Dover Demon. Mainstream cryptozoologists are rarely willing to seriously investigate humanoids other than hairy humanoids. It seems that sightings only happened during a short time period, with most claiming that sightings have now ceased, so the Dover Demon does not seem to be a pressing matter. 

 

The First Sighting of the Dover Demon, the bizarre tale begins at 10:32 p.m. on April 21 as three 17-year-olds, Bill Bartlett, Mike Mazzocca and Andy Brodie, are driving north on Farm Street. Bartlett, who's behind the wheel of a Volkswagen, spots something creeping along a low wall of loose stones on the left side of the road. At first he thinks the image is a dog or a cat until his headlights shine on it and he realizes it's nothing he's ever seen before. The figure slowly turns its head and stares into the light, its two large, round, glassy, lidless eyes shining brightly "like two orange marbles." Its watermelon-shaped head, resting at the top of a thin neck, is the size of the rest of its body. Except for its over sized head, the creature is thin, with long spindly arms and legs, and large hands and feet. The skin is hairless and peach-colored and appears to have a rough texture. "Like wet sandpaper," Bartlett subsequently tells cryptozoologist Loren Coleman. Standing no more than 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall, the figure is shaped like "a baby's body with long arms and legs." It had been making its way along the wall, its long fingers curling around the rocks, when the car lights surprised it. Unfortunately, neither of Bartlett's companions sees the creature. The sighting lasts only a few seconds and, before Bartlett can speak, the car leaves the scene. Then the creature is gone. Bartlett drops his friends off and goes to his Walpole Street home. Visibly upset, he walks through the door and his father asks him what's wrong. Bartlett relates the story and later sketches what he's seen. 

 

Now the second sighting Around midnight, 15-year-old John Baxter leaves his girlfriend Cathy Cronin's house at the south end of Miller High Road. Then, Baxter starts walking up the street on his way home. Half an hour later, after he has walked about a mile, he observes someone approaching him. Because the figure is short, Baxter assumes it's an acquaintance of his, M.G. Bouchard, who lives on the street. John calls out and no response. Baxter and the figure continue to approach each other until finally the latter stops. Baxter then halts as well and asks, "Who is that?" The sky is dark and overcast and he can only see a shadowy form. Trying to get a better look, Baxter takes one step forward and the figure scurries off to the left, running down a shallow wooded gully and up the opposite bank. As the figure runs, Baxter hears its footsteps on the dry leaves. He follows the figure down the slope, then stops and looks across the gully. There, he sees the creature, standing in silhouette about 30 feet away, its feet "molded" around the top of a rock several feet from a tree. The creature's body reminds Baxter of a monkey's, except for its dark "figure-eight"-shaped head. Its eyes, two lighter spots in the middle of the head, are looking straight at Baxter, who after a few minutes begins to feel uneasy. Realizing he has never seen such a creature before and fearing what it might do next, he backs carefully up the slope, his heart pounding. He then "walks very fast" down the road to the intersection at Farm Street. There, a couple passing in a car pick him up and drive him home.

 

This creature was sighted on three separate occasions in the town of Dover, Massachusetts, on April 21 and April 22, 1977. Due to its appearance, there’s speculation as to whether or not this creature was an alien, or the result of some sort of experiment – a human or alien hybrid, for example – while others suggest it came from another dimension. The Dover Demons features are as follows: a disproportionately large and watermelon-shaped head; glowing orange eyes; long, thin arms and legs with slender fingers. It was said to be hairless, with rough, flesh-toned skin described as a tan color with the texture of sandpaper. The Dover Demon reportedly lacked facial features – it had no nose, ears or mouth. Its height was 3 feet, and it made a bloodcurdling noise that sounded like a hawk’s screech combined with a snake’s hiss.


	3. The Jersey Devil

According to popular folklore, the Jersey Devil originated with a Pine Barrens resident known as Mother Leeds. The legend states that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after finding she was pregnant for the 13th time, cursed the child in frustration, crying that the child would be the Devil. During 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night while her friends gathered around her. Born as a normal child, the 13th child changed to a creature with hooves, a goat's head, bat wings, and a forked tail. Growling and screaming, it killed the midwife before flying up the chimney and heading into the pines. In some versions of the tale, Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the Devil himself. Some versions of the legend also state that there was subsequently an attempt by local clergymen to exorcise the creature from the Pine Barrens, or that the creature proceeded to kill local children. Brian Regal, a historian of science at Kean University, theorizes that the story of Mother Leeds, rather than being based on a single historical person, originated from colonial southern New Jersey religio-political disputes that became the subject of folklore and gossip among the local population. According to Regal, folk legends concerning these historical disputes evolved through the years and ultimately resulted in the modern popular legend of the Jersey Devil during the early 20th century. Regal contends that "colonial-era political intrigue" involving early New Jersey politicians, Benjamin Franklin, and Franklin's rival almanac publisher Daniel Leeds (1651–1720) resulted in the Leeds family being described as "monsters", and it was Daniel Leeds's negative description as the "Leeds Devil", rather than any actual creature, that created the later legend of the Jersey Devil.

Much like the Mother Leeds of the Jersey Devil myth, Daniel Leeds's third wife had given birth to nine children, a large number of children even for the time. Leeds's second wife and first daughter had both died during childbirth. As a royal surveyor with strong allegiance to the British crown, Leeds had also surveyed and acquired land in the Egg Harbor area, located within the Pine Barrens. The land was inherited by Leeds's sons and family and is now known as Leeds Point, one of the areas in the Pine Barrens currently most associated with the Jersey Devil legend and alleged Jersey Devil sightings. 

There have been many claims of sightings and occurrences involving the Jersey Devil.

According to legend, while visiting the Hanover Mill Works to inspect his cannonballs being forged, Commodore Stephen Decatur sighted a flying creature flapping its wings and fired a cannonball directly upon it to no effect.

Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon, is also claimed to have witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Borden-town estate about 1820. During 1840, the devil was blamed for several livestock killings. Similar attacks were reported during 1841, accompanied by tracks and screams.

In Greenwich during December 1925 a local farmer shot an unidentified animal as it attempted to steal his chickens, and then photographed the corpse. Afterward, he claimed that none of 100 people he showed it to could identify it. On July 27, 1937, an unknown animal "with red eyes" seen by residents of Downing-town, Pennsylvania was compared to the Jersey Devil by a reporter for the Pennsylvania Bulletin of July 28, 1937. In 1951, a group of Gibbs-town, New Jersey boys claimed to have seen a 'monster' matching the Devil's description and claims of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil's description arose in 1957. During 1960, tracks and noises heard near Mays Landing were claimed to be from the Jersey Devil. During the same year the merchants around Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the Jersey Devil, even offering to build a private zoo to house the creature if captured.

The most occurring sightings had occurred during the year 1909. During the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, newspapers of the time published hundreds of claimed encounters with the Jersey Devil from all over the state. Among alleged encounters publicized that week were claims the creature "attacked" a trolley car in Haddon Heights and a social club in Camden. Police in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania supposedly fired on the creature to no effect. Other reports initially concerned unidentified footprints in the snow, but soon sightings of creatures resembling the Jersey Devil were being reported throughout South Jersey and as far away as Delaware and Western Maryland. The widespread newspaper coverage created fear throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home. Vigilante groups and groups of hunters roamed the pines and countrysides in search of the devil. During this period, it is rumored that the Philadelphia Zoo posted a $10,000 reward for the creature. The offer prompted a variety of hoaxes, including a kangaroo with artificial wings.


	4. The Rake

 

Like the well-known Slenderman, the Rake is a monstrous creature born in the digital archives. Appearing first in 2003, it is said to be hunting the residents of rural New York, stalking its victims before killing them in a horrible death. Many videos of the Rake’s attacks went viral – however, all of the videos disappeared without anyone’s knowledge as to how or why. In 2006, people began to collect ship logs, suicide notes of haunted victims, journal entries and other documents to tell the story of the Rake and paint a history behind the monstrous creature.

During the summer of 2003, events in the northeastern United States involving a strange, human-like creature sparked brief local media interest before an apparent blackout was enacted. Little or no information was left intact, as most online and written accounts of the creature were mysteriously destroyed.

Primarily focused in rural New York state and once found in Idaho, self proclaimed witnesses told stories of their encounters with a creature of unknown origin. Emotions ranged from extremely traumatic levels of fright and discomfort, to an almost childlike sense of playfulness and curiosity. While their published versions are no longer on record, the memories remained powerful. Several of the involved parties began looking for answers that year.

In early 2006, the collaboration had accumulated nearly two dozen documents dating between the 12th century and present day, spanning 4 continents. In almost all cases, the stories were identical. I’ve been in contact with a member of this group and was able to get some excerpts from their upcoming book.

A Suicide Note: 1964

"As I prepare to take my life, I feel it necessary to assuage any guilt or pain I have introduced through this act. It is not the fault of anyone other than him. For once I awoke and felt his presence. And once I awoke and saw his form. Once again I awoke and heard his voice, and looked into his eyes. I cannot sleep without fear of what I might next awake to experience. I cannot ever wake. Goodbye."

Found in the same wooden box were two empty envelopes addressed to William and Rose, and one loose personal letter with no envelope:

"Dearest Linnie,

I have prayed for you. He spoke your name."

A Journal Entry (translated from Spanish): 1880

"I have experience the greatest terror. I have experienced the greatest terror. I have experienced the greatest terror. I see his eyes when I close mine. They are hollow. Black. They saw me and pierced me. His wet hand. I will not sleep. His voice (unintelligible text)."

A Mariner's Log: 1691

"He came to me in my sleep. From the foot of my bed I felt a sensation. He took everything. We must return to England. We shall not return here again at the request of the Rake."

From a Witness: 2006

"Three years ago, I had just returned from a trip from Niagara Falls with my family for the 4th of July. We were all very exhausted after a long day of driving, so my husband and I put the kids right to bed and called it a night.

At about 4am, I woke up thinking my husband had gotten up to use the restroom. I used the moment to steal back the sheets, only to wake him in the process. I apologized and told him I though he got out of bed. When he turned to face me, he gasped and pulled his feet up from the end of the bed so quickly his knee almost knocked me out of the bed. He then grabbed me and said nothing.

After adjusting to the dark for a half second, I was able to see what caused the strange reaction. At the foot of the bed, sitting and facing away from us, there was what appeared to be a naked man, or a large hairless dog of some sort. Its body position was disturbing and unnatural, as if it had been hit by a car or something. For some reason, I was not instantly frightened by it, but more concerned as to its condition. At this point I was somewhat under the assumption that we were supposed to help him.

My husband was peering over his arm and knee, tucked into the fetal position, occasionally glancing at me before returning to the creature.

In a flurry of motion, the creature scrambled around the side of the bed, and then crawled quickly in a flailing sort of motion right along the bed until it was less than a foot from my husband's face. The creature was completely silent for about 30 seconds (or probably closer to 5, it just seemed like a while) just looking at my husband. The creature then placed its hand on his knee and ran into the hallway, leading to the kids' rooms.I screamed and ran for the lightswitch, planning to stop him before he hurt my children. When I got to the hallway, the light from the bedroom was enough to see it crouching and hunched over about 20 feet away. He turned around and looked directly at me, covered in blood. I flipped the switch on the wall and saw my daughter Clara.

The creature ran down the stairs while my husband and I rushed to help our daughter. She was very badly injured and spoke only once more in her short life. She said "he is the Rake".

My husband drove his car into a lake that night, while rushing our daughter to the hospital. They did not survive.

Being a small town, news got around pretty quickly. The police were helpful at first, and the local newspaper took a lot of interest as well. However, the story was never published and the local television news never followed up either.

For several months, my son Justin and I stayed in a hotel near my parent's house. After we decided to return home, I began looking for answers myself. I eventually located a man in the next town over who had a similar story. We got in contact and began talking about our experiences. He knew of two other people in New York who had seen the creature we now referred to as the Rake.

It took the four of us about two solid years of hunting on the internet and writing letters to come up with a small collection of what we believe to be accounts of the Rake. None of them gave any details, history or follow up. One journal had an entry involving the creature in its first 3 pages, and never mentioned it again. A ship's log explained nothing of the encounter, saying only that they were told to leave by the Rake. That was the last entry in the log.

There were, however, many instances where the creature's visit was one of a series of visits with the same person. Multiple people also mentioned being spoken to, my daughter included. This led us to wonder if the Rake had visited any of us before our last encounter.

I set up a digital recorder near my bed and left it running all night, every night, for two weeks. I would tediously scan through the sounds of me rolling around in my bed each day when I woke up. By the end of the second week, I was quite used to the occasional sound of sleep while blurring through the recording at 8 times the normal speed. (This still took almost an hour every day)

On the first day of the third week, I thought I heard something different. What I found was a shrill voice. It was the Rake. I can't listen to it long enough to even begin to transcribe it. I haven't let anyone listen to it yet. All I know is that I've heard it before, and I now believe that it spoke when it was sitting in front of my husband. I don't remember hearing anything at the time, but for some reason, the voice on the recorder immediately brings me back to that moment.

The thoughts that must have gone through my daughter's head make me very upset.

I have not seen the Rake since he ruined my life, but I know that he has been in my room while I slept. I know and fear that one night I'll wake up to see him staring at me."


	5. The Flatwoods Monster

The Flatwoods Monster also known as the Braxton County Monster or Frametown Monster is a cryptic sighted in Flatwoods, West Virginia and Frametown, West Virginia, respectively. Like the Mothman, another cryptic from West Virginia, the Flatwoods monster is very mysterious. With a spooky appearance, the Flatwoods monster is believed to be of extraterrestrial nature. Although most scientists expect extraterrestrial life to exist, so far no unambiguous evidence for its existence exists. First sighted in 1952, this reptilian creature appeared to be mostly machine. Highly intelligent and logical, the Flatwoods Monster is all objective.

The entity was initially reported as being about 10 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It appeared to be some sort of robotic suit or spacecraft rather than an organic being. It had a 'cowl' in the shape of an ace of spades behind a red round head. Set in the head were two eyes, described as 'portholes', glowing green-orange and the size of half-dollars.The 'body' was a metallic armored structure lined with thick vertical pipes. Discrepencies exist in the actual color of the armour, some claiming it to be black while others saying green. The existence of arms is a similar matter. Most state the monster was armless, while others claim it posessed small, "toy-like" arms. The Frametown Monster, believed to be the same creature from Flatwoods, bore similar pipe-lined metallic armour from the waist down. From the wasit up, however, the other being a reptilian humanoid.

At 7:15 PM on September 12, 1952, three little boys witnessed a bright object cross the sky. The object came to rest on land belonging to a local farmer. Once they saw the thing land, the boys went to one of their moms houses, where they reported seeing a UFO crash land in the hills. From there, the boys and a group of locals went to the farm to try to find whatever it was that the boys had seen.

One of the locals dog ran ahead out of sight and started barking, and moments later ran back to the group with its tail between its legs. After traveling about ¼ of a mile the group reached the top of a hill, where they reportedly saw a large pulsating "ball of fire" about 50 feet away. They also saw and smelled a mist that made their eyes and noses burn. A farmer then noticed two small lights over to the left of the object, and directed his flashlight towards them, revealing the creature, which was reported to have emitted a shrill hissing noise before gliding towards them, changing direction and then heading off towards the red light. At this point the group fled in panic.

Upon returning home, the mother contacted the local sheriff and a news reporter. The reporter conducted a number of interviews and returned to the site with the farmer later that night, where he reported that "there was a sickening, burnt, metallic odor still prevailing". The sheriff and his deputy searched the area separately, but found no trace of the encounter.

Early the next morning, the reporter visited the site of the encounter for a second time and discovered two tracks in the mud, as well as traces of a thick black liquid. He immediately reported them as being possible signs of a saucer landing based on the premise that the area had not been subjected to traffic for at least a year. It was later revealed that the tracks were likely to have been those of a Chevrolet pickup truck driven by a local, who had gone to the site to look for the creature some hours prior to Stewert's discovery.

After the event, investigators associated with Civilian Saucer Investigation, obtained a number of accounts from witnesses who claimed to have experienced a similar or related phenomena. These accounts included the story of a mother and her 21 year-old-daughter, who claimed to have encountered a creature with the same appearance and odor a week prior to the September 12 incident; the encounter reportedly affected the daughter so badly that she was confined to a hospital for three weeks. They also gathered a statement from the mother of the local farmer, in which she said that, at the approximate time of the crash, her house had been violently shaken and her radio had cut out for 45 minutes, and a report from the director of the local Board of Education in which he claimed to have seen a flying saucer taking off at 6:30 on the morning of September 13th, the morning after the creature was sighted.

The day after the Flatwoods incident, a couple taking a leisurely drive through the mountains of Frametown, West Virginia, at dusk were met with a similarly horrific experience. Their car came to a sudden stop and refused to start again. Shortly thereafter, a putrid sulfuric odor filled the air. The couple, circling the vehicle in hopes of spotting the culprit, spotted something far worse than they could have imagined. From the waist down it was similar to the Flatwoods Monster, but from the waist up was a reptilian humanoid. This creature, thought to be the same creature sighted in Flatwoods, is known as the Frametown Monster.


	6. Mothman

The state of West Virginia has had its fair share of strange and often inexplicable events such the visitation of the Flatwoods Monster and Indrid Cold, but perhaps the strangest yet is the arrival of the creature known as the Mothman, who changed the sleepy little town of Point Pleasant forever when it swooped in one cold autumn night in 1966.

Today, Mothman is one of the most well-known cryptids in the world, made famous partly by John Keel's book (later adapted to film) The Mothman Prophecies. Mothman is also hunted in Mountain Monsters on Destination America.

The first recorded Mothman sighting took place on November 12, 1966, near Clendenin, West Virginia. Five men were in a cemetery preparing a grave for burial when they saw something they couldn't explain. Lifting off from the nearby trees was a brown winged creature. The men held to the fact that what lifted off beyond the trees was no bird, it was a humanoid.

The creature was sighted in many places across West Virginia and the surrounding states, but the largest number of sightings happened near the old West Virginia Ordnance Works, an area now known by locals as the "TNT Area."

West Virginia Ordnance Works is an abandoned munitions to the north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, that dates back to World War II. The facility, during its operation, manufactured ammunition and dynamite. The surrounding area is mostly forest, dotted with numerous grassy clearings and thick concrete domes, called "igloos," that were used to store barrels of gunpowder. The area is also riddled with abandoned tunnels, most of which have collapsed, been sealed off, or become flooded with water. A wildlife sanctuary, McClintic Wildlife Management, now encompasses the area.

In 1979, fishermen in the TNT area reported that chemicals had been left to seep into the ponds, causing it to be labeled an environmental disaster. By the year 1983, the TNT Area was among the country's most-polluted sites. 

It was here in the TNT Area on the cold night of November 15th, 1966, three days after the first sighting took place, that two young couples would encounter this bizarre creature. Roger and Linda Scarberry were driving in Roger's black '57 Chevy Bel Air with Steve and Marry Mallette through the area around midnight when Linda noticed, unbelievably, two large, glowing red eyes in the darkness beside the old North Power Plant, and screamed. They soon learned that these eyes belonged to something that looked frankly human, about 7 feet tall with wings folded against its back. Roger stalled in the road for a minute, inspecting the strange creature. The four realized immediately that their spectacle was no ordinary bird. The true horror began, however, when the creature spread its wings and pursued them down Highway 62 to the Point Pleasant city limits at speeds exceeding 100 mph.

The four arrived in town, startled and confused, and with no sign of the mysterious bird that had chased them. Roger parked his car at the edge of town and they discussed their encounter, eventually deciding that what they saw was nothing more than an aberrant bird, and in an attempt to face their fears they again drove towards the TNT Area. It wasn't long before they saw the creature again, apparently waiting on them beside Route 62. The couples now realized that their stalker was no bird, but in the instant that the car's headlights landed on the creature it lifted vertically into the air with tremendous speed and disappeared above the tree line.

This time when they arrived into town they went to the Mason county courthouse and told their story to Sheriff George Johnson and Deputy Miller Hallsted. Two hours later, City Police began investigating the area, only to return empty-handed. The next day, a press conference was held and the local press began printing on the story, causing others to come forward with previous and future sightings. This was the major event that started it all. In the November 16th issue of the Point Pleasant Register, the strange encounter would be brought to the public eye with the headline "Couple Sees Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something."

The strange encounter in the TNT Area was a harrowing experience for everyone involved, and on the morning of November 16th, 1966, Linda Scarberry was rushed to the hospital by her father after experiencing a nervous breakdown. On the phenomenon, Roger Scarberry stated, "I'm a hard guy to scare, but last night I was for getting out of there."

This creature would be seen throughout the next thirteen months in Point Pleasant, and it was estimated that there were over 100 sightings within this time, though these are unidentifiable reports and the actual number of reported sightings may be quite lower. Mothman witnesses were also harassed by the Men In Black who wanted them not to speak about the creature. The strange sightings all seemed to culminate in the collapse of The Silver Bridge on December 15th 1967.

 

Many similar cryptids and creatures have been seen worldwide. The sightings are similar to Mothman in many ways, including the fact that most of them seem to be heralds of impending disasters. Some of the places Mothman or its fellows have visited include a mine in Freiburg, Germany, where a Mothman-like creature scared miners away shortly before a collapse. Another notable visit was to the nuclear plant at Chernobyl, where a creature haunted the facilities for a while before the famous nuclear meltdown. There were also two Mothman pictures taken in New York on 9/11 and multiple sightings before the Minnesota bridge collapse.

Some believe that the Mothman tries to warn people about disasters about to happen. Such as the Freiburg and Chernobyl sightings listed above. However, since there only seems to be one Mothman instead of a bunch of his kind, and since he seems rather paranormal, these sightings are not of much interest to cryptozoologists who want to discover new kinds of creatures.

Mothman is described as a bipedal, winged avian humanoid with owl-like traits. Despite his name which was given to him by newspapers, he is in no way moth-like. His coloration varies from Black, gray, to even brown or white, although its is usually the darker shades. He is often reported to be about 7 feet tall, with a wingspan of about 10 to 15 feet or more, plus the ability to fly over 100 mph. Sometimes he’s described as not having a head with the two huge red eyes set in the chest. These eyes are reported to be glowing, or at least reflective. The details of his face and his feet have never been adequately described. One witness who saw the face clearly, could only say that the details were horrible and monstrous. She had terrible nightmares and nearly suffered a nervous breakdown..  
Anyone who gets a close look at the Mothman seems to suffer from extreme fear and psychological distress, sometimes lasting for months or years afterwards. In particular, people say that a sense of pure evil overcomes them when they see Mothman's eyes.

He can fold his wings and walk with a weird shuffle that many witnesses compare to a penguin. When he flies, he unfolds his wings and shoots straight up with great speed, then levels out to go wherever he wants to go. He is rarely observed flapping his wings except for on take off. Witnesses often described his flight pattern as "Straight up, like a helicopter". He can fly much faster than any bird should be able to fly, as measured by those victims who suffered from what seems to be Mothman's favorite activity: chasing cars. He'll fly in front of them and even sometimes hit at the roof.

Mothman sightings have been associated with at least two other cryptids. Gigantic Thunderbirds with gray bodies and red heads that were sighted in the same area at the same time by a few witnesses and Owlman which is an identical creature with wings and red eyes sighted in Cornwall, England in 1976.

Sheriff George Johnson, who the original witnesses contacted, believe the Mothman may have been a large heron. Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University thought that Mothman was a Sandhill Crane which the newspapers then reported on but the witnesses completely disagreed.

Skeptic Joe Nickell posited Owls as an explanation because of their eye shine and their silhouette resembling the headless Mothman. Most modern skeptics seem to agree with Joe Nickell but the sightings might just be too extraordinary to attribute them to such animals.

Two legends from Shawnee Indian lore mention creatures closely resembling Mothman, deemed Misignwa and Waupee respectively. In the legend of Misganaw, description of Mothman is indeed similar to Bigfoot by ceremonial dress used during the Bread Dance. The Waupee legend is also similar in that it's part of Shawnee lore, and that a family of Indians chose to become white hawks living in the forests near Point Pleasant.

Some believe the Mothman may be an angel, demon or the product of a blood curse placed upon the town by Chief Cornstalk, who was murdered along with his son in the area. Similarly, the curse theory is one very attached to the collapse of The Silver Bridge.


	7. The Lizardman

The term Lizard Men is not specific to one specific cryptid; instead it is used to describe a broad spectrum of bipedal hominid-like reptilian men, sometimes referred to as Homo-subterreptus. Sightings of Lizard Men are reported all over the globe, including the Intulo of South Africa, the Cherufe Lizard Man of South America, the New Jersey Gator Man and the Loveland Frogmen of Ohio, Lizard man of Scape Ore Swamp, Canadian Lizard Man, Nagas of India, Kappas of Japan, and other. On Mountain Monsters, there is supposedly a Lizard Demon that roams the rivers running through Wood County, West Virginia.

Many theories have been presented in relation to the identity of the Lizard men, theories such as living dinosaurs, and even offshoots of evolution in which the reptilian hierarchy continued to evolve along the same path as early primates. At one point in time reptiles ruled the earth, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the most dominate species on the planet could continue to evolve in small numbers unseen by mankind. Although no reptilian species known to man have shown signs of such advanced evolution, the reptile is the oldest and most successful species on the planet and could hold secrets that have yet to come to light.

Another theory in regards to lizard men is that they may be reptilian aliens. Many UFO and alien abduction cases have made note of aliens being reptile-like and since have been declared "reptilians". Many cryptozoology-related reptilian sightings may have a tie to the evolution of dinosaurs, so the alien theories are more stray from science.

The first modern reported sighting of the creature was made by George Holliman Jr. in the Fall of 1987, but it was the report by Christopher Davis, a 17 year old local man that made the Lizard Man famous.   
Davis said he encountered the creature while driving home from work at 2 AM on June 29, 1988. According to his account, Davis stopped on a road bordering Scape Ore Swamp in order to change a tire which had blown out. When he was finishing up he reported having heard a thumping noise from behind him and having turned around to see the creature running towards him. Davis said the creature tried to grab at the car and then jumped on its roof as he tried to escape, clinging on to it as Davis swerved from side to side in an effort to throw it off.

After he returned home, Davis' side-view mirror was found to be badly damaged, and scratch marks were found on the car's roof, though there was no other physical evidence of his encounter. "I looked back and saw something running across the field towards me. It was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes glowing. I ran into the car and as I locked it, the thing grabbed the door handle. I could see him from the neck down – the three big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin. It was strong and angry. I looked in my mirror and saw a blur of green running. I could see his toes and then he jumped on the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt and then I could see his fingers through the front windshield, where they curled around on the roof. I sped up and swerved to shake the creature off."

In the month that followed the Davis sighting there were several further reports of a large lizard-like creature, and of unusual scratches and bite marks found on cars parked close to the swamp. Most of these are said to have occurred within a 3 mile (5 km) radius of the swamps of Bishopville. At the time, local law enforcement officials reacted to reports of the Lizard Man with a mixture of concern and skepticism, stating that a sufficient number of sightings had been made by apparently reliable people for them to believe that something tangible was being seen, but also that it was more likely to be a bear than a Lizard Man.

Two weeks after the Davis sighting the sheriff's department made several plaster casts of what appeared to be three-toed footprints - measuring some 14 inches, 36 cm in length - but decided against sending them on to the FBI for further analysis after biologists advised them that they were unclassifiable. According to South Carolina Marine Resources Department spokesperson Johnny Evans the tracks neither matched, nor could be mistaken for, the footprints of any recorded animal. Evans also dismissed the possibility that they could have been made by some form of mutated creature.

The sightings attracted tourists interested in seeing the creature and hunters interested in tracking it, and nearby radio station WCOS offered a $1 million reward to anybody who could capture the creature alive. However, reports of the creature began to decline at the end of the summer with the last credible sighting of the year being reported in July. On August 5 Kenneth Orr, an airman stationed at Shaw Air Force Base, filed a report with the police saying that he had encountered the Lizard Man on highway 15, and that he had shot and wounded it. He presented several scales and a small quantity of blood as evidence. Orr recanted this account two days later when he was arraigned for unlawfully carrying a pistol, and the misdemeanor offense of filing a false police report. According to Orr, he had invented the sighting in order to keep stories about the Lizard Man in circulation.

\- Clayton Hooke

The Lizard Man was described as having green scaly skin with either red or orange eyes and three-fingered webbed hands. It stood about 7 ft. tall and had a stride of around 40 inches.


End file.
